Heaven and Hell

By: Kristen Ashley

Narrated by: Felicity Munroe

Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

After making a bad decision when she was very young, Kia Clementine finds herself in hell. Then, suddenly, within the time it takes for a shotgun to blast, her hell changes. Completely. Then, out of the blue, she sees Sampson Cooper, her celebrity crush. A man the whole world knows is decent. A man the world knows is loyal. A man the world knows is good. All of these very unlike her now dead husband. He's sitting at a table right next to hers. And she catches his eye.

Terrified of the interest Sam shows in her, Kia finds the courage to go out with him. Not long after, she shares her dark secrets, and Sam shares that he'll stop at nothing to gain her trust. As Sam leads Kia to heaven, Kia realizes that Sam is living his own hell. Although he gives her beauty and she gives him everything, he withholds his trust. Even with all the beauty Sam shows her, Kia wants it all. But Sam forces Kia to make a heartbreaking decision, and only she can decide. It's all or nothing.

©2011 Kristen Ashley (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Best KA book ever!

My favorite KA book by far. Narrator was phenomenal! She nailed every accent! May have to read (listen) to it again I enjoyed it so much.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Heaven and Hell

Heaven and Hell (Heaven and Hell 1) Kristen Ashley/Felicity Munroe

This audiobook is awesome. You will laugh, and you will cry. There are some nice cameo appearances from other KA books (Rock Chick and the 'Burg) which is always cool. As with KA's work in general, it's a good, solid, sweet, sexy, heartbreaking, awful, fantastic, amazing and life-affirming tour of hell, then heaven, then hell, then heaven. When I heard, "Epilogue," I was sad it was over and wondered how it was even possible to "already" be at the end of an almost-20-hour book. Our heroine's a pretty cool chick who has been kicked around and brought low but is neither a doormat nor a bitter shrew. I liked her a lot. Our hero's a super-hot, alpha bad*ss, ex-NFL player, ex-Army Ranger, with fabulous abs, a wicked protective streak and a squishy soft center that's REALLY tough to get to but is so worth the effort, and the "supporting cast" consists of very cool people you would totally want to hang out with.

The narrator, Felicity Munroe, is quite good. I thought she had a good feel for and fit with the story. She did a good job with the many characters, both male and female, and was easy to listen to. She did accents well (Southern, Italian, French and British), and overall, I really liked her performance. I listened at 1.25 speed, but I think that most audiobooks sound a little more natural at that speed because good narrators take the time to enunciate clearly, give the right inflection and pronounce words correctly, and in order to do that, they have to speak a little more slowly than normal. My ONLY criticisms are that she used a semi-Southern accent for Kia, though she is from the midwest (Indiana) and mispronounced Raleigh as "Riley." Seriously though, no biggie because it wasn't mentioned that often. (Having lived in North Carolina for more than a decade, I think I understand how she came up with "Riley." Here, oss=ice, far=fire, non=nine, tarred= tired, etc. Basically, they avoid the long "I" sound like unsweetened tea. SO, if a Southerner told you they went to what sounds like "Rollie," I can see how you might translate that as "Riley.") Other than those very minor anomalies, I think FM was a perfect fit for this book, and I hope she is available for future sequels in this series.

Creditworthy? Abso-freakin-lutely!! But, you can get a pretty good deal if you go the Whispersynch Kindle/Audible route. I got the Kindle version for $1.99 on sale and then the Audible companion for only $3.49, but I would have happily parted with a credit or cash for this gem.

24 of 28 people found this review helpful

Repetitive-Same Dialogue over and over and over...

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Became tedious due to the repetition. "Oh God, oh man, did he just say that?" Lost count as to how many times this dialogue was used. And lost count on how many times Sam said, "Got me babe?" UGH!!!! Narrator very good but had little to work with. Usually like Kristen Ashley.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Audible made a great book even better!

I'm sure I would have loved reading this book, but the narration made it amazing!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Another great book from KA!

This one has everything. Very funny writing, kept laughing out loud, which is not so funny when you're out in public. Had some heartfelt sections too. Loved all the characters and the side stories that came with them. There's a couple of cameo's from some of her other series. Nice to "see" them. Felicity Munroe is excellent as a narrator. She does American, French, Italian and Australian accents and they all sound great to me. I'll put this one up as one of my favorites.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Loved this Narration!!

Would you listen to Heaven and Hell again? Why?

I will listen to Heaven and Hell multiple times because I love the story and the Narrator does an excellent job of expressing Kia's feelings and making Sam sound just like what I was hoping he would.

What did you like best about this story?

The narrator did all the accents wonderfully. I love how unsure Kia always was and it comes through in the voice.

Which character – as performed by Felicity Munroe – was your favorite?

It's a close call between Kia and Sam. Kia has so much emotion, but same has the compassion to keep Kia at ease.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Kia flinches and ends up revealing to Sam he history.

Any additional comments?

I always love any book written by Kristen Ashley, so this was just as great as the rest. Felicity does the story justice and I would love to hear more from her.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Very good contemporary romance :D

4-4.5 stars

This was a really good story. I liked both Kia and Sam and their story was interesting kept me reading until the end.

Kia made a mistake in high school of choosing the wrong man. She got involved with and then married the high school football star that didn't make it anywhere (not even managing to graduate college) and made her suffer for a life gone wrong. Kia tried leaving him but never managed to stay away and paid dearly for every attempt. She lived in fear until the sheriff came to see her and tell her that her husband was dead, shot due to his own mis-deeds.

Sam is a very talented guy and got famous when he played college and then professional football. He loved his mom and his brother very much and did what he could to take care of them. When his brother was killed in the military, Sam left football to join the Army. He's since left the Army but is still rather famous even though he'd rather not be. Sam's dated a lot but never anyone that was real and made the cut in the end so he's still looking for his "one".

Kia's husband was cheating on her and his lover's husband was the one that killed him. Kia was rather shocked but had been a victim of her husband long enough that she was more relieved than upset about her husband's death. This feeling was reinforced when she found out about a large life insurance policy her husband had taken out on them both...her's for twice as much as his own. Soon she found out that he and his lover were planning to hire a hit man to kill her for the insurance money. Kia took a few months (around 5) to recover and find herself again and then decides to use her windfall to go to Europe. She travels to a few different locations and after she's been travelling a couple weeks she happens to go down for breakfast at her hotel and gets seated across from Samuel Cooper. Kia had always crushed on Samuel Cooper and semi-cyber stalked him so she knew who he was but didn't want to intrude and tried to ignore him and give him his privacy. That soon gets nixed as a restaurant employee with an eye for romance ends up pushing them in to sharing a table. They have a very nice breakfast together and there's an obvious spark between them. Their start is a little rough though, because Kia is unsure of Sam's intentions and after being in an abusive relationship for 7 years, she has a hard time crediting that a man like Sam would look twice at her.

Sam soon corrects Kia's erroneous assumptions but it's not easy by any means. Because of what she went through, Kia doesn't feel worthy of a guy like Sam and tries to push Sam away but Sam wont be budged, determined to get his chance to know Kia. Sam thinks there's something very special about Kia and is determined to help her through her rough time dealing with her past and then have a chance to see if they can have a future together. Sam was sweet and patient with Kia and made her feel safe, which is something she hasn't felt in a long time so it meant a lot for her. They end up spending the rest of her vaca together (a couple more weeks) and then go back to her home town in Indiana to see her friends and take care of some other stuff. As this is happening, news comes that the hit on Kia by her husband and his lover wasn't just planned but bought and paid for. Sam is all over making sure that Kia is safe and brings in people to help ( from other KA series, like the Burg). Kia gives in to Sam's need to keep her safe but there's some issues between them as things get more serious between them because Kia gives all of herself to Sam but Sam holds back. I have to give Kia credit, she didn't cut and run at the first hurdle, she stuck it out and things only came to a head when any woman would have found it hard to ignore. Things get pretty dicey for the couple and my heart was breaking for Kia and Sam during the rough points. Thankfully, Sam made the needed effort to breach the gap and make things right between them, leading to their well deserved HEA.

This was a really enjoyable read. Kia and Sam were both really good MCs and I could help but root for them from the start. Their story was well paced to keep things interesting...not a huge amount of action but the suspense kept things going when the romance wasn't. Overall I really liked it and am looking forward to the next book in the series (whenever it comes out). I'd recommend this story. Thumbs up! :D

+ note - the narrator of the audio version did a really good job, especially with all the accents. :)

18 of 22 people found this review helpful

Know what you are committing to -- it's a long book

I really had no idea what to expect from this book. It's a romantic thriller with a diffuse and improbable plot. The characters (male and female) are almost all beautiful, rich, self-centered, unintelligent, and haunted by past experiences of pain which they manage to transcend for unconvincing reasons at the author's convenience. There is a great deal of explicit sexual description that is curiously not erotic. Worst of all, the values that the author assumes her readers share with her border on the repulsive. Youth and appearance, money, self-indulgence, male bonding through violence, abuse of women are all approved. It's confusing that the heroine, abused over the course of an eight year marriage by her husband, finds happiness in submitting to the domination of an idealized hero who, though he does not hit her, treats her with disrespect and lays down all the ground rules.

Yeah, all this is pretty bad. The narrator, however, is talented and very funny. She does a great job of differentiating the voices of a large cast of characters, and handles various accents with ease. I hope she gets some more interesting (or less revolting) assignments in the future.

8 of 10 people found this review helpful

Smothering

I bought this book because of the reviews even though I had never read a book by Kristen Ashley. I will never read another book by her again. I read this title to the end because of the fantastic narrator.

Kia is a woman who lives in Indiana and has unexpectedly come out of a seven-year abusive marriage due to the murder of her husband. Even after his death, unbelievable complications arise that she only discovers after treating herself to a European vacation.

Enter Samson Cooper - former NFL superstar and commando. Need I say he is the obvious love interest in the story? He has no command of the English language, preferring to swear his way through life. He is a bully and very nearly makes Kia hostage to his lustful interests. Romance? It barely squeaks through the story line. The fact that Kia can't breath every time she sees him isn't a testimony to his love. It's a demonstration that he can't let her out of his sight. There were times when I wondered if he'd let her out of the house. And his answer to everything is sex.

Even in the end, which is a fairly predictable happily ever after one, which I don't mind in this genre, every time the couple is described, his arm grabs her across the shoulders. It ultimately ends up with no space between their bodies - all the time. It's ridiculous. There were moments when the description of how he was holding her didn't make sense. He's always "fisting" her neck and hair, which is a word implying abuse and is not at all romantic or sexy. These are the kinds of terms describing their "love." He frequently dares her not to obey his commands. No amount of how soft his eyes look outweights all the abusive, macho words and behavior of this man as he is portrayed throughout the story. He's disgusting and I would run as far away from him as I could. Why Kia falls for him is beyond me.

The dialogue is flat. From the point of good writing, the use of adverbs and gerunds as adjectives is, at best, amateur. From the number of novels Ms. Ashley has written, I imagine she is trading on her name and her graphic sexual scenes which I know many find intriguing. In fairness to the author, these are done well, although I skipped over them since they are what Sam Cooper uses uses to express his emotions and nothing more. One scene borders on rape.

What is good about this book is Felicity Munroe. She does fantastic accents - British, Australian, Italian and French. She does it in the style of an Olympian - effortless. It was as if different people were reading the parts. The only thing about the narration I didn't understand was making the individuals in Indiana southern. Indiana is Midwest American. Not Tennessee or Kentucky. It makes Kia sound stupid. Then again, since she fell in love with Sam Cooper, perhaps she is.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

From Hell...she takes a trip to heaven.

I cried - on my exercise bike, in the kitchen baking cookies and sitting on my bed playing Solitaire. Listening to the audio of Heaven and Hell was EMOTIONAL. I should have been prepared considering I had read it before, but no, I still blubbered like a baby. The pain is the same whether you’re reading it or someone else is reading it to you. My boys would come in to check on me as I was exercising and find me sitting on my bike, still exercising, but sniffling. The first time was a surprise and they were concerned, but once I reassured them, the subsequent times they giggled or shook their heads with a smirk on their face. Yeah…real funny.

I started Heaven and Hell hoping it would keep me motivated to keep up my exercising routine. The exercising while listening was new, previously I only listened to audios while I baked. Unfortunately, I was sneaking in listens between exercise sessions. A cake HAD to be baked…biscuits were NEEDED…I’ll just listen to one chapter to RELAX. Instead of just listening while exercising, I was finding any excuse to turn out the world and return to Sam and Kia’s love story.

I LOVE SAM COOPER…and Kia’s pretty awesome too.

Kia’s life was heaven for a small time in high school when the star quarterback asked her out. Kia finished school, married her sweetheart Cooter, and they set up their house together. Her heaven turned to HELL when Cooter became abusive physically and mentally. She tried to escape a few times but didn’t want to risk her family and friends lives because she knew Cooter would come for her and someone would pay. Kia’s family and friends knew she was suffering, but she refused to ask for help. They leave her be but worry about her. Eventually, Cooter dies a horrible death and Kia gains her freedom. Some shocking truths come to light after his death with some huge repercussions. A life insurance payout sets Kia up for life. Her first step towards freedom is to take a trip overseas. She’s in Lake Como and cannot believe her eyes…SAMPSON COOPER!! Sam is Kia’s Pervathon, the guy she internet stalks and knows EVERYTHING about. How she deals with her first meeting is funny, but also really cute.

Sam Cooper has had a very interesting life. He grew up in an abusive household, became a football star, lost his brother in the war, left his football career to join the army and lost his best mate in the war too. It’s a wee bit of a burden to carry on his very broad shoulders and I hated seeing him struggle with it on his own. He sees Kia and thinks she’s very cute. Once he hears her story, he decides to keep her.

Their journey to love is not all hearts and flowers. Lots of issues need to be addressed and barriers that have been in place for a long time need to be climbed and obliterated. From the very beginning, you know that the challenges will be worth it because this couple needs to be together. They fit each other, and that fit is GOOOOOOD!! Holy shamoly, Sampson Cooper is HOT!!

Ok, now for the audio part of this review. Felicity Munroe does a really good job. It’s not an easy story as there are a few different accents. I think she does most of the accents well. Unfortunately, I nearly fell off my exercise bike laughing at her Aussie accent for the character Thomas. Thomas was described as Amercian, with a slight Australian accent considering he grew up and lived there for ten years and visited family there regularly. All I can say is…Thomas must have spent equal time in New Zealand and South Africa too. As an Aussie, I’m probably going to pick it up more, but it really did make me chuckle. The only other accent that was a little hard to take was Ozzie. He’s the sheriff from Kia’s hometown and he did NOTHING to help Kia get out of her hell. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of this character, but his old…boy…charm…slow…talking…drawl, drove me up the bloody wall. I even had to speed it up as it was too slow. My favourite accent from all of the characters was Celeste’s French one. Maybe someone French would find fault, but I thought it sounded lovely and very easy to listen to.

I loved Heaven and Hell to read and listen to and I will definitely re-read/listen to it again. I’m going to stick with my 5-star rating for both the e-book and the audio.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

One of my favourites

When Kristen Ashley gets it right you appreciate what a good story teller she is. The characters can often be complex, with several storylines woven together. This book has the feel of Lady Luck and At Peace both of which I have revisited.
There is nothing quite like being drawn into a story by the first chapter . My only criticism would be the level of bad language which I think is not really necessary. Do people talk like this ? But even so, a very good book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

For the love of an Alpha

What did you like most about Heaven and Hell?

Everything

Who was your favorite character and why?

Kia, she is just such a strong women to still be standing tall after everything she went through.

Have you listened to any of Felicity Munroe’s other performances? How does this one compare?

N/A

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Where can I get my very own Sam from ? Loved him,loved this book and loved how the yummy Lee nightingale made an appearance..Listen to this audio ,you will not be disappointed.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Loved it

This was another great book was even better to get to listen to it I highly recommend this audio book